Hawkers return to streets after 6:30pm

After being driven out of pavements and streets of central Dhaka earlier this month, the hawkers have gradually started getting back to business on the footpaths, but in the evening.

“Initially, the police did not allow us to sit,” Abdul Hashem Kabir, a leader of the Hawkers Union, said yesterday. But we are back to the pavements after 6-30pm. “But we cannot leave our wooden cots or bags wrapped in polythene, indicating the individual hawker’s property, in our respective places. We have to carry them back home and return next evening,” he added. “However, the business remained dull as our main customers, the people returning home at the end of the office hours, who usually do their shopping from the pavements, buying all and sundry that we offer from cheap garments to kitchen wares, are not there as they have to rush early to catch their transports back home,” Kabir complained.
He said, initially the police bothered them. But when they insisted that it was the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokan who promised to let them in after evening, without interrupting traffic on the street and free movement of pedestrians we could sit, the law enforcers went away, he said.
“Even some of the hoodlums troubled us. But after some of them were arrested, they ran away,” he added. “But we are waiting for the Mayor to keep his main promise to help us rehabilitate before eviction and provide us jobs, something that remained unfulfilled like many of his past promises,” the hawkers union leader said.
“We want him to keep his commitments and settle our problems. In the meantime, we will continue our agitation to have our rights to do business in a corner of the pavements undisturbed, to ensure survival for thousands of city hawkers who also lost their wares during police eviction drives,” Kabir said. 

Hawkers return to streets after 6:30pm

After being driven out of pavements and streets of central Dhaka earlier this month, the hawkers have gradually started getting back to business on the footpaths, but in the evening. Initially, the police did not allow us to sit, Abdul Hashem Kabir, a leader of the Hawkers Union, said yesterday. But we are back to the pavements after 6-30pm. But we cannot leave our wooden cots or bags wrapped in polythene, indicating the individual hawkers property, in our respective places. We have to carry them back home and return next evening, he added. However, the business remained dull as our main customers, the people returning home at the end of the office hours, who usually do their shopping from the pavements, buying all and sundry that we offer from cheap garments to kitchen wares, are not there as they have to rush early to catch their transports back home, Kabir complained. He said, initially the police bothered them. But when they insisted that it was the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Sayeed Khokan who promised to let them in after evening, without interrupting traffic on the street and free movement of pedestrians we could sit, the law enforcers went away, he said. Even some of the hoodlums troubled us. But after some of them were arrested, they ran away, he added. But we are waiting for the Mayor to keep his main promise to help us rehabilitate before eviction and provide us jobs, something that remained unfulfilled like many of his past promises, the hawkers union leader said. We want him to keep his commitments and settle our problems. In the meantime, we will continue our agitation to have our rights to do business in a corner of the pavements undisturbed, to ensure survival for thousands of city hawkers who also lost their wares during police eviction drives, Kabir said.